Systemic disaster or shock can open possibilities for social change not available in the US during normal times; the Covid-19 pandemic is such a crisis. The right wing will seek to exploit the situation; what will the Left do? The CCDS discussion will present an overview and examples, with two speakers:

Bill Fletcher — How the Right is using the crisis to advance its agenda.

The presentations will be followed by Q&A and discussion, including suggestions for new ways of online organizing..

the speakers:

Marilyn Albert is a retired Registered Nurse with over 40 years of experience; she worked in the New York City hospitals for most of her career. She has been active in the movement for single payer health care since the 1970s. She is a founding member of the Committees of Correspondence for Democracy and Socialism and lives in Richmond, California.

Bill Fletcher Jr. is a former president of TransAfrica Forum, writer, commentator trade unionist and activist. His books include: The Man Who Fell From the Sky (fiction); Claim No Easy Victories: The Legacy of Amilcar Cabral (co-editor); ‘They’re Bankrupting us’ – And Twenty other myths about unions; and Solidarity Divided: The Crisis in Organized Labor and A New Path Toward Social Justice.

THE TELECONFERENCE will consist of 3 two-hour sessions, each with 45 minutes for Q&A. The first will begin at noon EST, followed by an hour break. A second will be from 3-5pm EST. A final session will take place from 6- 8 pm EST. A headset & webcam, or a smartphone, is recommended

THE 21st CENTURY HAS BROUGHT NEW FORMS OF CAPITALISM – from the globalization of production, to financial speculation, to new kinds of cross-national class formations. Paralleling these changes in the nature of national and global capitalism have been new resistance from Arab Spring, the Occupy Movement, to the Pink Tide in Latin America, to international boycott campaigns, to global worker mobilizations to fight Covid 19. Given the rise of neoliberal globalization, drone warfare, crippling economic blockades, a burgeoning climate crisis, and new forms of rightwing populism organized around racism, sexism and revanchism, it is time for the left to have a serious conversation about twenty-first century imperialism.